Ukrainian woman alleges gang-rape by drunk Russian soldiers as her 4-year-old son wept in boiler room

KYIV: Amid the ongoing war with Russia, a Ukrainian woman has alleged that she was gang-raped by drunk Russian soldiers for hours while her four-year-old son hid crying in a boiler room. Breaking her silence probably for the first time, Natalya (name changed), 33, alleged that the drunk Russian soldiers gang-raped her minutes after killing her husband.

According to a Daily Mail report, Natalya while narrating the horror also revealed how a Russian commander and his soldiers barged into her family's home located in a small village near Kyiv on the night of March 9. They also killed my husband Andrey, 33, in the front yard, she said.

After they killed her husband, Natalya saw a Russian commander - who told her his name was Mikhail Romanov - and another soldier dressed in black, entering her house while looking for other family members.  

Frozen at the sight of her husband’s murder, Natalya pushed her 4-yer-old son to hide in the boiler room, where the family had been sheltering to protect themselves from the shelling by the Russian troops. The incident took place in Shevchenkove, a village just outside the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.     

The Ukrainian woman said that she was threatened by the Russian soldier to keep quiet lest she would be killed. Natalya was then raped by the two Russian soldiers at the gunpoint for hours while her son kept sobbing in the boiler room.

After raping her for several hours, the two Russian soldiers left but again returned within 20 minutes and raped her again. The soldiers kept coming to her home at regular intervals but they were so intoxicated that they eventually fell asleep, giving Natalya enough time to flee along with her son hiding inside the dark boiler room of her home.

The alleged gang-rape of Natalya is being investigated by Ukraine's prosecutor-general Iryna Venediktov - the country's first official investigation into alleged rape committed by Russian soldiers.

In another development, Russia's military on Tuesday announced that it will ‘fundamentally’ scale back operations near Ukraine's capital and a northern city, as talks brought the outlines of a possible deal to end the grinding war into view.

Deputy Defence Minister Alexander Fomin said the move was meant to increase trust in the talks after several rounds of negotiations failed to halt what has devolved into a bloody campaign of attrition. The announcement was met with scepticism from the US and others.